[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 84 (Tuesday, June 10, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H5156]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO AL DAVIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Feeney). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from California (Mr. Matsui) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. MATSUI. Mr. Speaker, at a later moment in this Special Order the 
gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt), the ranking member of the 
Committee on the Budget, will be speaking more fully about Al Davis, 
the chief economist for the Committee on Ways and Means, and formerly 
the economist for the House Budget Committee.
  Today I come to the floor to pay tribute to Al Davis and express my 
deepest sympathy to Mary, Al's partner for more than 20 years. Al had a 
remarkable life, one in which he made an unforgettable and immeasurable 
contribution to the scope of this country's economic and budgetary 
policies. Although most Americans will never know his name or his 
extraordinary contributions, he has influenced each of us in our lives 
for the better.
  Five years after serving in the U.S. Army from 1969 to 1971 during 
the height of the Vietnam War, Al began his lifelong career as an 
economist while working for the Wisconsin Revenue Department until 
1980. While there, he rose from an analyst to the bureau chief in the 
research and analysis division in a very short period of time.
  During the early 1980s, he served as senior analyst on the Taxation 
and Finance Committee with the U.S. Advisory Commission on 
Intergovernmental Relations. And from 1994 to 1998, he was chief 
economist for the Democratic budget staff and then was the economist 
since 1999 until his tragic passing just last month as the chief 
economist for the Committee on Ways and Means.
  Al was a master of economic and budgetary policy through four 
administrations. He helped our committee staff navigate every economic 
budget and tax proposal put before the U.S. Congress.
  Al called us, that is the Members of Congress and his colleagues on 
the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on the Budget 
his customers, and he provided us with realms of memos and charts and 
analysis that only Al could produce. He did it with insight and humor. 
He stripped away the clutter to extract the critical details of major 
issues facing the American public.
  You would often hear about Al's ability to translate complex and 
difficult economic concepts for Members, staff, and, of course, the 
press. On his own, he was a unique gift, but what made Al truly 
remarkable was his delivery of his translation and the integrity that 
he actually had which he imposed upon all of us because anyone dealing 
with Al Davis knew they had to be honest with themselves because of his 
basic decency and honesty.
  When Al found a provision or proposal that he analyzed to be unfair 
to the American public, this translation, without fail, was laced with 
humor and simultaneously expressed his frustration, and he always 
exposed the unfairness of whatever he was working on if he believed it 
to be unfair.
  Over the years, Al Davis provided the Democratic Members of the 
Committee on Ways and Means with probably 150-200 memos. Most of us 
read all of them, not only because of the analysis that he gave us, but 
also because of his humor and his sense of humanity. I would like to 
take a moment to quote two paragraphs in a January 30, 2003 memo. The 
subject from Al Davis to the Committee on Ways and Means Democrats is 
``Snow Hearing Next Week and Budget Deficits.'' Of course, we had a lot 
of snow during the month of January, so it was snow hearing and budget 
deficits. And the caption is ``The Return of Budget Deficit as Far as 
the Eye Can See.'' He says, and I do not mean to be partisan here, but 
it is humorous. It is not dry. He says, ``Normal mortals would be in 
the hospital with whiplash if they changed their positions as radically 
as my Republican colleagues.'' And then in the same memo he states. 
``Tax cuts and war look cheap because we are about to put them on a 
national credit card and pass the costs on to our children.''
  Al had a way of saying the obvious and stating public policy by 
actually communicating with a sense of humor to all of us. I have to 
say, Mr. Speaker, that we in this country are very blessed because we 
have always had through the agencies, through the executive branch and 
the judicial branch, but particularly through the legislative branch of 
our government, people who are dedicated to the betterment of our 
country, and truly Al Davis was a symbol of that standard that all of 
us are here to certainly aspire to.
  Al, we are going to miss you very much and we thank you for 
everything you have done for all of us.

                          ____________________